MYSTERY. — In current Catholic teaching, a mystery is a truth revealed by God which the human intellect cannot discover by its own powers, and which, even when known through revelation, can never be perfectly comprehended.
OUTLINE:
I. The Term
II. The Concept
III. Existence and Knowability.I. THE TERM
The word μυστήριον (from which the Latin mysterium and the Italian m. derive) had a twofold meaning in Greek and Hellenistic usage: a profane and a religious sense. In the first, it denoted a hidden truth or reality, a secret; in the second, especially in the plural, it referred to “the mysteries” (v.), those rites of religious initiation concerning which the initiates were bound to maintain absolute secrecy. In the Old Testament the term appears with both meanings: religiously, it designates “the secrets of God,” namely, the designs of His providence unknown to us (Wis 2:22) or a divine reality hidden as “Wisdom” (Wis 6:22). In the New Testament the term occurs 28 times, 21 of which are in St. Paul. At times it assumes the sense of a reality possessing symbolic religious value (Eph 5:32) or of a reality operating in a mysterious manner (2 Thess 2:7). More often, however, it denotes a truth known only to God and graciously manifested to men (e.g., Mk 4:11 and parallels). In St. Paul it especially signifies the divine plan of salvation, hidden from eternity in God and now revealed by the Apostle (e.g., Rom 16:25-26; Eph 3:3-6, 9).This comprehensive meaning passed from the New Testament into Christian language, where, however, it also acquired another derived from the religious meaning of Hellenism: Christians also called “mysteries” the sacred rites through which participation in the divine life brought by Christ is attained, and in particular the Eucharistic rite. In the Latin of the Church, the dual meaning—of divine truth and sacred rite—was expressed by two terms, mysterium and sacramentum, which were initially used interchangeably. Only gradually did their meanings become distinct: mysterium (and the Italian m.) was reserved to express the hidden truths of Christianity, while sacramentum (sacrament) was reserved to designate sacred rites or realities.
II. THE CONCEPT
The current Catholic concept of mystery is a clarification and deepening of the biblical meaning. Its development took place during the patristic and scholastic periods, though it was solemnly defined by the Church only at the Vatican Council. Some biblical statements clearly contain the concept of a truth hidden in God, naturally unknowable to any being other than God, and communicated to men by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 11:25-27; Jn 1:18; 1 Cor 2:7-16). Starting from these affirmations, Christian thought soon distinguished two orders of truth: those which men can know by their own intellect and those inaccessible to human intellect, indeed to any created intellect other than God’s. Among these latter were placed the fundamental truths of the Christian religion: the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of God, heavenly beatitude, the Eucharist. Later, at various times, different attempts were made to demonstrate these fundamental truths rationally or to interpret them in such a way as to render them perfectly “evident” to human intellect; a typical example is Abelard’s attempt regarding the Trinity. The attempt was repeated in a more serious form in the last century, both by non-Christian philosophers such as Hegel Hermes (v.), Günther (v.), FROHSCHAMMER, JACOB (v.).Against these errors, the precise dogmatic formulation of the concept of mystery was developed at the Vatican Council. In the Constitution *De fide catholica*, chapter IV, the Council teaches that “according to the constant thought of the Church, there are two orders of knowledge, distinct both in their principle and in their object: in the first order, the principle of knowledge is reason, in the second, divine faith; in the first order, the object of knowledge is solely natural truths, in the second, besides some truths which natural intellect can attain, there are also the mysteries hidden in God, which cannot be known unless they are revealed by Him” (Denz-U, 1795). The corresponding canon declares heretical anyone who says “that in divine revelation there is contained no true and proper mystery, but that all the dogmas of the faith can be (perfectly) comprehended and demonstrated by a duly developed intellect” (Denz-U, 1816).
Catholic theology, basing itself on these declarations, has further clarified the concept of mystery, particularly by distinguishing true mysteries from other natural and supernatural truths more or less hidden from human intellect.
The mysteries properly so called (“vere et proprie dicta mysteria,” as the Council expresses it) are truths: 1) hidden in God, which do not form part of the natural knowable realm of any created intellect; 2) consequently, they cannot be known except through divine revelation; 3) even when known through revelation, they cannot be so perfectly comprehended as the truths which form the proper object of our intellect, but remain always as if veiled, rendering them “mysterious.” The first characteristic clearly distinguishes Christian mysteries from all truths unknown to us but comprehended within the realm of created realities: secrets of physical nature (e.g., the ultimate composition of matter and energy) or the secrets of inner life (e.g., the thoughts and free will of others). This characteristic particularly distinguishes Christian mysteries from those revealed truths which can also be known naturally, e.g., the existence of God. The second characteristic is a logical consequence of the first: a truth which is “hidden in God” and known only by Him cannot be known by us unless He reveals II. There are, however, many revealed truths which manifest a free divine decision and which therefore could not be known without revelation, but which, once revealed, can be perfectly understood. For example, the choice of Paul as “Apostle of the Gentiles,” the election of Peter as head of the apostolic college and of the Church. These truths are sometimes called “mysteries,” but in a relative sense: what is not naturally knowable to human intellect is their existence, not their nature. The third characteristic is therefore what radically distinguishes true mysteries from every other hidden truth: they are truths which completely transcend the comprehending capacity of every created intellect; to be perfectly comprehended, they would require a direct vision of the divine essence. The “true and proper mysteries” are truths evident to divine intellect, which contemplates them in its own infinite essence (v. DIVINE SCIENCE); but they cannot become evident to a created intellect when communicated to it through limited concepts incapable of representing them in their infinite simplicity. The reason for the incomprehensibility of Christian mysteries is therefore their supernatural character (v. SUPERNATURAL ORDER).
III. EXISTENCE AND KNOWABILITY
### III. EXISTENCE AND KNOWABILITY
No official document of the Church provides a precise list of mysteries properly so called; yet there are sufficient elements in ordinary teaching to make known which revealed truths are regarded as mysteries properly so called. Scripture (Mt. 11:25-27; 1 Cor. 2:7-16; Jn. 3:1-2) suggests truths intrinsically beyond our intelligence, such as the Trinitarian mystery and our future participation in the divine life. In a letter of Pius IX (*Gravissima inter*, Dec. 11, 1862), which summarizes the entire tradition of Christian thought, it is stated that among the dogmas which escape the possibility of natural demonstration (and hence, indirectly, of full comprehension) must certainly be included “those truths which concern the supernatural elevation of man and his supernatural relationship with God. These truths, being supernatural, can never be attained by natural reason with natural principles: natural reason can never become capable of scientifically comprehending” (*scientia tractare*) “these dogmas with its natural principles” (Denz.-U., 1671). Therefore, all revealed truths that manifest a strictly supernatural reality belong to mysteries properly so called. Among these, common catechetical teaching includes the mystery of the Incarnation. But one may add: the Eucharist, and in general the Sacraments, the Church considered as the Mystical Body of Christ, the divine life within us or the mystery of Grace and of the divine presence, the beatific vision, and original sin.
A fundamental question inevitably arises from the exposition of the Catholic concept of mystery: namely, how mysteries can be intelligible if they are truths by their very nature beyond created intelligence, and what value their knowledge can have for us if they ultimately represent inconceivables. In reality, mysteries, though surpassing the capacity of human understanding, are not without some relation to other truths within the scope of our intelligence: in theological language, it is said that they present an analogy with truths already known, and this analogy suffices to provide a certain initial (aliqualis) understanding and to make their meaning intelligible. Thus, from the ordinary concept of paternity and filiation, one can arrive at understanding what is meant in the Trinitarian mystery by Paternity and Filiation, even while being persuaded that the Father and the Son do not stand in a relationship identical to that which exists among men between father and son. In the mystery, one perceives by faith the existence of a naturally unknowable relationship, yet analogous to a known one.
The revelation of mysteries finds its explanation not in itself, but in the end which God intends to achieve through it: it is an anticipation of the clear vision of divine reality, which He holds in readiness as a reward for those who “are holy as He is holy” (Jn. 3:3). It is an act of friendship (Jn. 15:15) whereby God, revealing to man the inmost depths of Himself, draws him to a life of spiritual communion with Him, a preparation and condition for a future, full and indissoluble communion in the beatific vision. For this reason, meditation upon the fundamental “mysteries” of Christianity has always been, for Christian souls, a source of deepening religious knowledge and of a more generous life.